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YOU HAVE
A 100% TRACK RECORD FOR GETTING THROUGH EVERYTHING IN YOUR LIFE

You're doing pretty darn
awesome!

You're
still breathing, heart beating, and you have what it takes to walk
ahead powerfully.

Remind yourself every day
– “I will be okay. Everything will be okay. I always get through somehow. I
trust this.”

Reminder #2

THIS TOO SHALL PASS

Challenges are like
storms that arrive in your life, like a weather pattern. Storms have a
life span. And your life span is longer than its!

The storm will come and
it will go, and you will outlive it.

Remember, this is a
season. Like everything in life, it will eventually pass. Thoughts pass.
Feelings pass. Challenges pass.

Be patient and trust.

Reminder #3

DIAMONDS ARE MADE UNDER PRESSURE,
AND SO ARE YOU. YOUR CHALLENGES WILL BE THE MAKING OF YOU

Life challenges
pressuring you are softening your rough edges, calling you to evolve,
buffering you to expose the power and beauty you have.

On the other side of this
challenge, you will shine again, brighter than before.

Reminder #4

ALL CHALLENGES MORPH INTO WISDOM

This is the gift that
challenges bring. They come to offer you something.

Whatever you get out of a
challenge in the form of greater understanding, skills and life wisdom,
you will not only use in future (as a handy side benefit) but you will NEED in
future.

There is Divine Order in
your life.Maybe you don't know yet what this life challenge is
gifting you, or maybe you do. Maybe you don't know yet what this wisdom is for,
but you will find out soon enough!

Perhaps the wisdom is to
support something you will DO in the
future. Perhaps it is to help you SHARE
that wisdom with someone else in your life, to uplift them on their journey.
You needn't be concerned about why you're being given this wisdom, only that it
is has purpose.

The Universe/Divinity
(whatever word you use to describe a higher power at play in your life)… it
moves us across each others life paths, in right time and right order. We
end up learning through challenges and then being called forth into work,
career, vocations, relationships, situations and places in order that we can
contribute through the wisdom we have gained.

There is purpose to what
you are going through. Trust this.

Reminder #5

‘SOMETIMES THINGS FALL APART SO THAT BETTER
THINGS CAN FALL TOGETHER‘

That's actually a Marilyn
Monroe quote!

Remember that when it
feels like life is falling apart, sometimes it's actually life's way of spring
cleaning you (and your circumstances) to prepare you for the coming summer
season of your life.

So even though it's
tempting to think that life is beating down on you, pause to consider if maybe
the slate is being wiped clean in order that something better can form.

Reminder #6

WHAT WE RESIST PERSISTS. SO, IT'S
VITAL TO LET GO AND FLOW

Use this mantra on a
daily basis… “This is happening, and I choose peace.”

Your attitude is EVERYTHING when it comes
to staying strong. You will either become a victim to what is happening or
you will rise up and be a victor.

The choice is yours, and
it all starts in your mindset.

I hope these reminders
are helpful for whatever life challenges you might be going through now, or
that you may face on your forward journey.

The Daily Positive is all
about supporting each other, so do reach out and leave me a message in the
comments section below. Let me know what's going on for you, how you're doing,
and any questions you might have.

Plus, if you have any
pearls of wisdom you want to share with the community, things that have helped
you stay strong during life challenges, please share!

Steve Harvey asked Bishop TD Jakes the million
dollar question everyone seems to want to know the answer too, “What can I do
to be happy?”

Less than 5 minutes,
here’s what he replied…

1.Own Your Own Happiness: Be
responsible for your peace and joy that’s within your heart and independent of your kids, spouse, and
stuff.

2.Challenge Your Own Story: Change the
way you talk to yourself about who you are and what happened to you in life. You wrote the script. Change
the Story.

3.Enjoy the Journey, Not
the Destination:

Enjoy
the process and celebrate along the
way!

4.Make Relationships
Count:

Nature
teaches us, there is s no fruit without relationships. You
cannot be fruitful without relationships. You are no more than the relationships you surround
yourself with, and make sure they are good
ones.

5.Balance Work with
Play:

Not only
for you to be holistic, but for people to get a perspective of who you are. If you work really hard
and diligently, then balance it out
with play. If you play hard, and no work, you’ll be fun, but you’re
going to be hungry.

My dear friends, relatives and others let us
create our own happiness because happiness is inside job and anyone who needs
this will going get it.

When it comes to Christian theology,
just about all roads lead through Romans. Paul’s letter to the Romans is
arguably the single most important piece of literature in the history of
the world. And chapter 8 is perhaps its greatest section. and Romans 8:31–39 is the climax. It is
actually an inference from everything Paul says in Romans 5:1–8:30 about
the glorious results of our justification.

It’s as if the apostle takes a deep
breath as he thinks back over Romans 5:1–8:30, and then
asks God’s people, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for
us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).

That second question is rhetorical, so
it has the force of a proposition: Since
God is for us, nothing can be against us. Paul then supports what he
asserts with four proofs.

Proof 1: God will
graciously give us all things (Rom. 8:32).

Paul is arguing from the greater to the lesser. If God gave us the
greatest gift (i.e., he did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all),
then God will certainly give us everything else we need (i.e., he will also
with Jesus graciously give us all things).
That is evidence that since God is for us, nothing can be against
us.

Proof 2: No one will bring
a charge against us (Rom. 8:33).

No one can take us to court before God and win a case against
us, because God himself is the one who has declared us righteous.

That is further evidence that since God is for us, nothing
can be against us.

Proof 3: No one will
condemn us (Rom. 8:34).

No one can condemn us to hell on judgment day because Jesus
himself died for us, was raised for us, and is now at the right hand of God
interceding for us. We are eternally secure in Christ. That is even more evidence that since
God is for us, nothing can be against us.

Proof 4: Nothing will
separate us from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:35–39).

Christ loves us, and no enemy or weapon or calamity can separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What more evidence do we need that since God is for us, nothing
can be against us?

“I believe in strong women. I believe in the woman who is able to
stand up for herself. I believe in the woman who doesn’t need to hide behind
her husband’s back. I believe that if you have problems, as a woman you deal
with them, you don’t play victim, you don’t make yourself look pitiful, you
don’t point fingers. You stand and you deal. You face the world with a head
held high and you carry the universe in your heart.” – C. JoyBell C.

Strong women just have a certain vibe about them, and
emanate confidence and assertiveness wherever they go. Most women could
probably agree that they enjoy being independent, self-assured, and mentally
and physically strong, but getting to that point can seem challenging. Despite
gender roles and social conventions, women have risen above the expectations of
others and have made great progress in showing the world the beauty and
strength of femininity.

It doesn’t matter how you see yourself now – you can easily
become a strong, independent woman using these tips below:-

1. Seek the right kind of attention

In today’s world, we have dozens of apps, such as Tinder,
that can give us instant gratification without having to form real connections.
It’s no secret that women are objectified and oversexualized everyday for
marketing campaigns, advertisements, and other forms of media, so using your
body to get what you want only further perpetuates the idea that women have
nothing more to offer than sex. If you want to form long-lasting, deep connections
and attract the right attention, share your intellect and feelings with others.

If you carry yourself with dignity and know your self-worth
beyond your appearance and sex appeal, you will start to attract others who
also want something more than just a shallow connection to fulfill base-level
desires.

2. Follow others strong women

If you turn on almost any reality TV show today, you won’t
find much more than materialism, self-absorption, and sexualization of both men
and women. Reality TV and other types of media, despite the name, don’t
actually portray reality at all. Watching these superficial shows only makes
people become blind followers of icons that don’t necessarily have the best
values. Instead of binge-watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians, why not start
following other strong women who actually promote causes that help the planet
and its inhabitants, and don’t use their bodies or money to gain attention? To
name just a couple wonderful women to look up to, Oprah and Ellen DeGeneres
certainly fit the bill.

3. Don’t wait around for someone to save

Probably one of the most important tenets of becoming a
strong woman is not relying on someone else to come along and rescue you. A
strong, independent woman knows she possesses all the power within herself to
make positive changes in her life. She doesn’t wait around for someone else to
pick her up when she’s down or show her the right way to live her life. While
emotional independence may not happen overnight, you can easily work at it each
day if you’d like to become a stronger woman. Of course, having relationships
with others who we can share our concerns with is important, but we shouldn’t
ever look to others to lick our wounds or save us from ourselves.

4. Free yourself from the victim

While women have undeniably been oppressed in the past, and
still may not be seen as equals to men in some parts of the world today, you
don’t have to perpetuate this belief. Shatter the idea that you somehow have
less value than men, because this simply doesn’t have any truth to it. Men and
women both play important roles in society, and one gender does not have
greater worth than the other. However, playing into thevictim mentalityand believing that you get treated
differently than men will only keep the idea alive that we live in a man’s
world.

Success
is a subjective notion, if there ever was one. But for simplicity's sake, let's
assume the higher you are on Maslow's hierarchy of needs,
the better you're doing. In case you don't remember the levels from Psych 101,
essentially, people can't be their best possible selves (self-actualization)
until lower-level needs are met first. In other words, you can't be an ideal
version of yourself if you don't have enough food and money to pay the
bills, or enough love and esteem to feel good about your
value as a human being. So, what can you do to move yourself up the pyramid?

Check out the findings from several studies,
which shine a light on what it takes to achieve more in life.

1.Increase your confidence by taking action.

Katty
Kay and Claire Shipman, authors of The Confidence Code, wrote a stellar
article for The Atlantic on
this subject. Highlighting scads of studies that have found that a wide
confidence gap exists between the sexes, they point out that success is just as
dependent on confidence as it is on competence. Their conclusion? Low
confidence results in inaction. "[T]aking action bolsters one's belief in
one's ability to succeed," they write. "So confidence
accumulates--through hard work, through success, and even through
failure."

2.Broaden your definition of authenticity.

Authenticity
is a much sought-after leadership trait, with the prevailing idea being that
the best leaders are those who self-disclose, are true to themselves, and who
make decisions based on their values. Yet in a recent Harvard Business
Review article titled "The Authenticity
Paradox," Insead professor Herminia Ibarra discusses
interesting research on the subject and tells the cautionary tale of a newly
promoted general manager who admitted to subordinates that she felt scared in
her expanded role, asking them to help her succeed. "Her candor
backfired," Ibarra writes. "She lost credibility with people who
wanted and needed a confident leader to take charge." So know this:
Play-acting to emulate the qualities of successful leaders doesn't make you a
fake. It merely means you're a work in progress.

3.Improve your social skills.

According
to research conducted
by University of California Santa Barbara economist Catherine Weinberger, the
most successful business people excel in both cognitive ability and social
skills, something that hasn't always been true. She crunched data linking
adolescent skills in 1972 and 1992 with adult outcomes, and found that in 1980,
having both skills didn't correlate with better success, whereas today the
combination does. "The people who are both smart and socially adept earn
more in today's work force than similarly endowed workers in 1980," she
says.

4.Train yourself to delay gratification.

The
classic Marshmallow
Experiment of 1972 involved placing a marshmallow in front of a
young child, with the promise of a second marshmallow if he or she could
refrain from eating the squishy blob while a researcher stepped out of the room
for 15 minutes. Follow-up studies over the next 40 years found that the
children who were able to resist the temptation to eat the marshmallow grew up
to be people with better social skills, higher test scores, and lower incidence
of substance abuse. They also turned out to be less obese and better able to
deal with stress. But how to improve your ability to delay things like eating
junk food when healthy alternatives aren't available, or to remain on the
treadmill when you'd rather just stop?

Writer
James Clear suggests starting small, choosing one thing to improve
incrementally every day, and committing to not pushing off things that take
less than two minutes to do, such as washing the dishes after a meal or eating
a piece of fruit to work toward the goal of eating healthier. Committing to
doing something every single day works too. "Top performers in every field--athletes,
musicians, CEOs, artists--they are all more consistent than their peers,"
he writes.
"They show up and deliver day after day while everyone else gets bogged
down with the urgencies of daily life and fights a constant battle between
procrastination and motivation."

5.Demonstrate passion and perseverance for
long-term goals.

Psychologist
Angela Duckworth has spent years studying kids and adults, and found that one
characteristic is a significant predictor of success: grit. "Grit is
having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just
for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to
make that future a reality," she said in a TED talk on
the subject. "Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a
sprint."

6.Embrace a "growth mindset."

According
to research conducted by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, how people view
their personality affects their capacity for happiness and success. Those with
a "fixed mindset" believe things like character, intelligence, and
creativity are unchangeable, and avoiding failure is a way of proving skill and
smarts. People with a "growth mindset," however, see failure as a way
to grow and therefore embrace challenges, persevere
against setbacks, learn from criticism, and reach higher levels of achievement.
"Do people with this mindset believe that anyone can be anything, that
anyone with proper motivation or education can become Einstein or Beethoven?
No, but they believe that a person's true potential is unknown (and
unknowable); that it's impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with
years of passion, toil, and training," she writes.

7.Invest in your relationships.

After
following the lives of 268 Harvard undergraduate males from the classes of 1938
to 1940 for decades, psychiatrist George Vaillant concluded something you
probably already know: Love is the key to happiness. Even if a man succeeded in
work, amassed piles of money, and experienced good
health, without loving relationships he wouldn't be happy, Vaillant found. The
longitudinal study showed
happiness depends on two things: "One is love," he wrote.
"The other is finding a way of coping with life that does not push love
away."

Managers routinely give employees conflicting
messages. “Be innovative” and “Follow established protocol.” “Take risks” and
“Don’t expose the company to bad press.” “Focus on the company’s #1 initiative”
and “All of these projects are a priority.” We’vewritten previously about the double
bindthat many
organizations put their employees in, providing some advice for leaders on
how to mitigate the impact that these mixed messages have on people. But what
if you’re the employee and your manager doesn’t recognize the impossible
position he’s put you in?

People
who find themselves in such a double bind have pretty predictable responses.
Frustration and anger are most common. Less obvious reactions are the tendency
to withdraw, shut down, and wait for clear direction that may never arrive. If
you’re feeling any of these reactions to your boss’s requests, there’s a good
chance that a double bind is the cause. So, what can you do?

First,
don’t pretend that this conflict doesn’t exist. In our previous post, we
gave the same advice to managers and we explained howbusiness theorist Chris Argyrisdescribedthe
sequence of events that happens when they fail to do so: Organizations and
their leaders craft messages that contain inconsistencies. Then, they make
the problem worse by acting as if the messages are consistent — and then, they
make it nearly impossible to resolve issues by labeling the inconsistent
messages as “undiscussable.”

It’s
not that you can’t deal with conflicting messages; people do it all the time.
But leaders put people in an impossible situation when they pretend that the
messages don’t conflict and preempt any discussion of the matter.

Excellent customer service
creates loyal customers for life; customers who
are willing to refer your business to friends, family and
colleagues. Providing this type of excellent customer service starts with
a genuine desire to delight your customers, but you also have to think beyond
selling your products or services. You need to consider the cumulative
experience your customers have when they visit your store or website, what they
think and feel, and what you can do to make it better.

Here are nine ways you can learn more
about your customers and start to create a pattern of excellent customer
service in your small business.

1. Know Your Product
or Service

In order to provide good customer
service, you need to know what you're selling, inside and out. Make sure you --
and all of your customer-facing staff -- know how your products or services
work. Be aware the most common questions customers ask, and know how to
articulate the answers that will leave them satisfied.

2. Be Friendly

As they say, customer service starts
with a smile. When you are in a face-to-face situation, a warm greeting should
be the first thing your customers see and hear when they ask for help. And even
when handling customer service requests via telephone, a smile can come through
in your voice, so make sure you're ready to be friendly.

3. Show Respect

Customer service can often involve
emotions, so it's important to make sure you and others you have handling your
customer service tasks are always courteous and respectful. Never let your own
emotions overtake your desire to see your customer walk away happy.

4. Listen

Listening is one of the simplest
secrets of customer service. Listening means hearing what your customers are
saying out loud, as well as what they are communicating non-verbally. Watch for
signs that they are displeased, while listening to what they say to you
directly.

5. Say Thank you

Gratitude is memorable, and it can
remind your customers why they shopped at your store or hired your company.
Regardless of the type of business you have, saying thank you after every transaction
is one of the easiest ways to start a habit of good customer service.

6. Train Your Staff

It's important to make sure all of
your employees, not just your customer service representatives, understand
the way they should talk to, interact with, and problem-solve for customers.
Provide employee training that gives your staff the tools they need to carry
good customer service through the entire customer experience.

7. Be Responsive

There may be nothing worse than
non-responsiveness to a customer who is trying to get help, resolve an issue,
or find out more about what you're selling. It's important to respond quickly
to all inquiries, even if it is only to say you are looking into the issue and
will be back in touch. Some response is always better than none so the customer
doesn't feel ignored.

8. Ask for Feedback

You may be surprised what you learn
about your customers and their needs when you ask them what they think of your
business, products, and services. You can use customer surveys, feedback forms and
questionnaires, but you can also make it a common practice to ask customers
first-hand for feedback when they are completing their orders.

9. Use Feedback You
Receive

You need to do something with the
feedback you receive from customers in order to make it useful in your customer
service process. Take time to regularly review feedback, identify areas for
improvement, and make specific changes in your business.

Excellent customer service often comes down to consistently checking in with
your customers and making sure they are happy with not only the products and
services you're selling, but also the process of purchasing, ordering, working
with you, etc. If you do that successfully, you are on your way to becoming
known for providing excellent customer service.